Climate Change and Horse Keeping: Managing the Uncertainty

A little more than a year ago I was invited to travel to Australia to be the keynote speaker at a conference on horses and land management. One of the other speakers at that event presented material that changed some of my thinking on horse care. His presentation was on the link between climate change and infectious disease risk for horses. Dr. Gary Muscatello, a microbiologist and faculty at the University of Sydney Veterinary Science Department, was the presenter. Let me summarize key points from his presentation.

The effects of climate change are surrounding us and undoubtedly are effecting our horse's health. While it is an uneasy feeling, there are ways we can manage the uncertainty.

Photo: Alayne Blickle

Worldwide when there are new disease outbreaks (human or horse), there seems to be a link between climate change and infectious disease risk. General principles of a warmer environment and changing weather patterns influence many factors which encourage disease outbreaks, disease transmission and the emergence of new diseases. Warmer temperatures enable disease-carrying organisms to extend their ranges, have a longer breeding season and generally become more virulent. Animals (both domestic and wild) which are already stressed by changes (less water, hotter temps, less food availability, etc.) are now more susceptible to diseases, particularly to new diseases, moving into the areas. This interaction of stressed animals and new pathogens, along with animals which are immunologically naïve, causes new disease outbreaks in horses.

Connecting the Climate Change Dots with DiseaseAn example in the human world is Lyme disease, which previously did not occur in Canada, but now does. Birds and ticks, the carriers of Lyme disease, never survived in these colder areas but with warmer temperatures they are traveling further North and the pathogens are surviving.

Climate Change and Equine DiseaseIn Kentucky in 2001 eastern tent caterpillars were found to be the cause of abortions in Thoroughbred mares, called mare reproductive loss syndrome. The caterpillars, when accidentally ingested by pregnant mares, produced abortions. These caterpillars are associated with drought conditions, part of the climate change model.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, associated with poor air quality and air pollution, also a part of climate change model, seems to be on the rise and is expected to continue to increase.

Bacterial pneumonia, which has a big impact on foals, lives in soil and is exacerbated by dry, dusty conditions--again associated with climate change. Australia, in particular, has seen huge increases in this disease in their Thoroughbred racing industry, causing economic havoc.

Examples of other types of diseases expected to become more widespread are pigeon fever, a bacterium spread by midges and biting flies that live and breed in mud, and rain scald or rain rot which is caused by bacteria that thrive in a wet environment, often spread around water tanks or other muddy areas.

More than ever, good pasture management is important to reduce bare spots and overgrazing so there’s less dust in the summer and no mud in winter.

Photo: Alayne Blickle

Managing the UncertaintyThe trending in climate change points to things being much different in the next 10 or 50 years. Worldwide we are experiencing extreme weather events which previously were in 100-year cycles. Expectations are for droughts and water limitations, extreme weather patterns like monsoonal rain events, more wind, frequent flooding, cyclonic extremes like super hurricanes and super tornados, and generally warmer and dryer temperatures during growing seasons.

These changes mean disease-carrying insects and pathogens will be flung further along by strong winds and have broader ranges that are more habitable for them. It means great impacts on agriculture in general with less availability of hay and grain and the associated increases in costs due to greater diseases affecting crops, etc.

What can be Done?Management is key! First, understand disease risks and what can be done to break connections. More than ever, pasture management is important to reduce bare spots and overgrazing so there’s less dust in the summer and no mud in winter. Implement mud management techniques to reduce habitat for disease carrying organisms such as using footing in confinement areas and gutters and downspouts on buildings. Clean waterers regularly to reduce mosquito and insect habitat. Learn and implement water conservation methods at home and on the farm or ranch. Future-proofing us and our horses means taking action to plan and prepare for changes in our climate.

Learn more by joining Horses for Clean Water and the King Conservation District on Friday April 25, from 8:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the Conference on Climate Change and Horse Management at Emerald Downs Race Track in Auburn, Wash. This event is the first ever of its kind in North America.

The morning session will feature three keynote speakers. Dr. Nick Bond, Washington state’s climatologist from the, University of Washington will speak on weather trends and expectations for the Pacific Northwest. Chad Kruger, head of Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, will speak on how these trends are affecting plant and crop species and production. Then Dr. Gary Muscatello, DVM, from the University of Sydney, Australia, whom I originally heard speak in Australia, will discuss how climate change is affecting horse health, both in North America as well as worldwide.

The conference afternoon session will give attendees tools to “future proof” their land and horses, including new twists on pasture management, innovative approaches to water conservation, and more. In addition, the conference will be filmed, streamed live, and available worldwide afterward--for free!

The event cost is $20 for horse owners/general public and $35 for agency participants and includes coffee and fruit at sign-in, sandwich bar lunch, vender display, and a tram tour of Emerald Downs horse facilities, plus a free ticket to the races redeemable any 2014 race day! It is free for those livestreaming the event.

About the Author

Alayne

Alayne Renée Blickle, a life-long equestrian and reining competitor, is the creator/director of Horses for Clean Water, an award winning, nationally acclaimed environmental education program. Well known for her enthusiastic, down-to-earth approaches, Alayne is an educator and photojournalist who has worked with horse and livestock owners for over 15 years teaching manure composting, pasture management, mud and dust control, water conservation, chemical use reduction and wildlife enhancement. She teaches and travels North America and writes for horse publications. Alayne and her husband raise and train their reining horses at their ranch in sunny Nampa, Idaho.

Comments

The views expressed in the posts and comments of this blog do not necessarily reflect those of The Horse or Blood-Horse Publications. They should be understood as the personal opinions of the author. All readers are encouraged to leave comments; all points of view are welcome, but comments that are discourteous and/or off-topic may be removed.

The scaremongering in this article is disappointing. Horses have adapted (as have all existing species) to the changes in climate for as long as there have been horses. Interestingly, Australia has backed off on many 'climate' initiatives as support for the theory has fallen due to the RSS (satellite) feeds that have not confirmed any rise in global temperatures in 17 years. The modeling for prognostications has not only not been borne out, (loss of glaciers, polar bears, and snow, as well as increase in hurricanes), the converse is true. Where were the hurricanes last year? The science on this issue is far from settled, and after one of the coldest winters on record, many of us are months late getting started even conditioning our horses (this on one of The Horse's own polls). The suggestions for a response to global warming (ever wonder why they stopped calling it that?) are part of good horsekeeping regardless of temperatures, so I'm not sure why that has to be the impetus. As far as insect populations, as an environmental chemist (who prefers to call facts, facts and theories, theories) the resistance to pesticides (and the aversion to DDT) has caused a proliferation, much like deworming issues in livestocks. Natural selection is the culprit for increased resistances, and is also the savior for any species' response to climate as it changes, as it has always done. BTW, my area of expertise is water chemistry, and while I think what you are doing is meritorious, it would be wiser and more useful if you did not continue in the same vein of prognostications that have proved laughable.

Kathy

18 Apr 2014 2:02 PM

Hello, Kathy. Congratulations on your water chemistry degree. I'm not sure why you need to consider this sort of conference to be a form of scaremongering and to call these people prognosticators who are "proved laughable." I'm a horse owner. I live in the United States. I follow what the United Nations IPCC tells me are the current trends on global climate instability. More important, as a horse owner, I pay attention to news in the United States. I know that Texas ranchers have faced years of drought related to global climate instability with huge spikes in abandoned horses, and the entire dismantling of ranches as they divest of their stock and horses. I know that hay prices have already increased many times in Kentucky and other places because of the increasing fragility of our agricultural production. I know that many horses, and other animals, were threatened by the polar vortex and the weird shifts in major snowfall and frigid temperatures this past winter. I know that things will become more difficult. Yes, horses adapt via natural selection. But as Mr. Lincoln would say, horses depend "on the angels of our better natures." So, I *want* to learn more about disease vectors and land management and develop social networks so that I can help horse people throughout the United States when they hit hard times -- one to keep down the population of abandoned, starved, and neglected horses, but two in order to keep horses protected. They are largely a luxury good -- the first thing to go for most families when times are tight or distressed. We need ALL of us to learn how to live on this planet. I'm not at all sure where you're getting your facts, but the scientific and government communities agree that global climate instability is a fact. Moreover, the United Nations released a report just last week, saying that we have about 15 years to mitigate, if not turn back some of the more dire effects. I am grateful for this conference and wish I could attend. I wish they would audio cast it. I would pay good money to watch an audio cast version of this conference. So, thanks for your view, Kathy, But I'm not having it.

Laura

21 Apr 2014 8:43 PM

Complete rubbish! I remember in the 70's when all the environmental crowd was preaching that we were heading into another ice age! Weather and climate is cyclical. Period.

Judith

22 Apr 2014 12:02 AM

Good morning! Happy Earth Day! Again, I just want to thank the conference organizers for pulling together such a wonderful event. I imagine your attendees will have a wonderful day of scholarship and then a chance to tour a Emerald Downs. You sound like you're trying to foster a chance for horse owners to share their ideas and stories. I am so glad to see that you are offering free live streaming, for those of us who wish we could be there and want to benefit from your conference. Here's information from the United Nations about a report they released on March 31, 2014, detailing the issues you're bringing to our attention in proactive ways. Namaste. Blessings on your work.

Laura

22 Apr 2014 7:07 AM

You're welcome, Laura, but I'm not asking you to "have it". You do realize that the IPCC is a political organization and not a scientific one - it's distinctions like that that are indeed laughable when you cite that as scientific proof. Did you know that IPCC edits of scientific conclusions have angered contributing scientists such that they've requested removal of their names to the modified conclusions. Even with that this years report is not nearly as hyperbolic as the IPCC reports of yesteryear. Since the ice shelf growth this year defies their previous reports, they've carefully backed off on their claims of disappearing polar bears (higher populations in recent years) and loss of glacial fields. Did you know that recently an AGW research vessel got stuck in ice in Antarctica, and the icebreaker that came to rescue them got stuck in ice too? Karma, gotta love it.

I am a degreed chemist, not that you could recognize a genuine scientist if you fell on one, I began my career working for the state of Colorado Health Department in 1981 in the environmental section (lakes and rivers) and as a result of my analytical expertise and court testimony, brought real polluters into compliance. I've worked all over these United States, helped write chemistry methods, training manuals, and environmental regulations adopted by the EPA. I have worked for both public and private sectors, on Superfund, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act compliance (SW-846), and am an expert in 40 Code of Federal Regulations which delineate environmental chemistry detection and reporting. In over thirty years of working with and sometime consultant for the EPA, I have never seen such a politicization over a topic in my life. There is no such thing as consensus in science, you may have agreement over theories, but only in politics do they conflate projection with facts. Science relies on reproducible, verifiable data, not mystical in absentia data field such as the East Anglia nonexistent data. (That is one of the Universities that is supposed to substantiate the rise in temperatures, but they can't 'find' that data.)

Secondly, I'm either older than you or my memory goes back for more years than yours. There are cycles in farming and shortages which make prices rise, and they are usually due to weather. Too much rain last year and we had higher prices here. I grew up on a farm, so I watched as people battled this long before the concept of blaming the weather on cow farts and fossil fuel. (FYI that computer you type on is made of fossil fuel by-products.) You have to have a short view on history to say that this weather is more extreme than ever before. That's just plain ignorant. Read about the Dust Bowl sometime. Droughts are new and more severe, huh? Pick up a Steinbeck novel and read why don't you.

As to how to protect your horses from 'disease vectors' (cute term, did you know that vectors are a math value that represents increases in only one direction? Did you know that modern medicine actually looks at disease as a wave function, with highs and lows, with some dependence on weather, but more often than not other factors play a larger role such as economics and available treatment.) You don't have to do work as I have done coordinating states under IPHIS with the CDC to know it either; it's just common sense.

Laura, you may have missed that economic recession in the United States while you were reading all that IPCC nonsense, that economics rather than weather forced and continues to force many people out of horse ownership. But go ahead and blame the weather if you like: on your individual planet man controls that and it's the only factor in everything, from disease to farming to horse ownership. But where I live, there are many factors at play. Life is a multivariable equation where nothing can go to zero and the unknowns outnumber the equations to derive them. Any person who oversimplifies the contributing factors is not a reliable source of information. The sun warms the planet, green house gases such as carbon dioxide are beneficial to plant life, and water is a far more efficient planet warmer. Water can't be blamed on people though, so politicians settled on CO2 as an easier tool to regulate behavior, generate taxation, and manipulate markets, without having to justify that claim with actual data. Computer models have been so far wrong that it is indeed laughable. Remember the IPCC report that said there would be no more snow? You would if you have more than ten minutes of available memory and keep up with the IPCC as you claimed. The environment has been my life's work - and I have been cleaning up actual environmental problems not generating phony ones for profit. I've kept up with this warming nonsense since they stopped threatening us about global cooling. It will be this until they put it down for the next way to scare people into higher taxes and to attend 'green conferences' that always have a price.

It's a facile answer to blame mankind because man can somewhat control what he does. But to do that you have to control man and fear is good for that. Scaremongering and emotional appeals are how you act when reason is not on your side. A call to authority of agencies that fund scientific studies that will prove their politics of taxation (Cap and Trade) and the transfer of wealth (taxes on fossil fuels that hit the middle class consumer hardest) is hardly an unbiased source. Climate instability is NOT a fact. You can not demonstrate that, no one can, and saying it while putting your fingers in your ears also will not make it so. Long after you and I are dust of the earth, this planet will be kicking mankind's puny backside. Argue with a volcano why don't you. You do realize volcanos generate lots and lots of CO2?

The current crop of CAGW who now call their fear "climate change" instead of global warming, because it is not global and it is not warming, do not rely upon science, they rely upon the politics of fear. And I don't know if you, Laura, can tell the difference, so your "having it" is immaterial to me, just don't expect me to let your wild assertions stand unchallenged.

As to the 15 years to mitigate - I laugh again - I hope that is this your crystal ball talking because it is more believable than the same source that said last year was to be the worst year for hurricanes, ever. And there were none. Then we heard how all the recent hurricanes were growing worse and more frequent. We who live with hurricanes, and lived through many including Camille (egads how can you not know about that) know that is a big fat lie.

I was being generous when I called it laughable. It is an insidious attack on real science, and the impact it will have on real scientists is of concern to me. There are indeed real environmental problems out there, real enemies to public health that I have fought all of my adult life, and this obvious CAGW stupidity puts a black lie on my profession, and it was put there by politicians. Follow the money.

And speaking of which, the money for this conference is just one example of people who make money off of threatening people with pestilence and poverty if they don't shut up and get in line. That's hardly the angels of our better natures. That's greedy greenies trying to extract a morality by controlling other people's behavior. Close to 70% of Americans don't buy it which is why there is no Cap and Trade here.

Taking care of horses is important to me. Coming to websites like this for information on vet treatments, training advice, and good horse-keeping helps me take good care of mine. But I see no reason to put up with falsehood and fear mongering when the politicization of the science has blown it all out of proportion with the facts of the matter. Fight disease in horses through vaccination and regular vet visits. Fight contamination of the environment through careful handling of toxic substances and proper waste management. But you can not make it get cooler or warmer or rain or drought based on behaviors or by paying higher taxes and attending green conferences. If that Australian took a plane to get here, then by his own calculations he contributed more to global warming than I will in a year. The people who preach about it most - don't follow what they preach. They hop on planes and fly all over to conferences with no regard to their carbon footprint while telling me I have to pay more for hay because their taxes on fossil fuels drive up the costs. Well someone has to sacrifice, and it's going to be us, the little guy, not the politicians and their paid crusaders.

I'll ride my horses instead of jetting all over the planet to tell people how to mitigate the bad behavior of jet setters. Want some science on the issue? Try wattsupwiththat.com the world's most viewed site on climate change. There's a scientific debate there on this so called consensus. So Laura I'll take your "Shut up, she explained" and raise you one. I'll happily buy you a coffee in 15 years when you have a little history and experience on the subject.

And Alayne, I follow your blog because I'm interested in efforts to preserve our nation's waterways, AGW notwithstanding, good horsekeeping should include respect to the environment we enjoy most on horseback. The reason we are careful with our environment is the same reason we take care of our horses - it's our responsibility. I don't have to be afraid of catastrophe to do it.

Kathy

22 Apr 2014 8:22 PM

"Nice" to know Kathy can insult others personally while she shares her "facts". So mature.

“All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; and Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” - Arthur Schopenhauer

Yvonne

27 Apr 2014 12:53 PM

The "Environmental-Nazis" used to call it "Global Warming," but now, like a chameleon, they've changed their colors to read "climate change."

The malarkey has been shown to be a total HOAX.

Weather is weather.

P.S. The "Black Death" (bubonic plague) of the 1350s in Europe had no correlation whatsoever to "climate change." And, by the by, there were no mean and nasty and hateful "factories" or industries back then....

Arabians

11 May 2014 7:06 PM

From the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto, May 16, 2014:

Here, from National Review's Patrick Brennan, is the latest reason to distrust the authority of "consensus" climate scientists:

On May 8, Lennart Bengtsson, a Swedish climate scientist and meteorologist, joined the advisory council of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a group that questions the reliability of climate change and the costs of policies taken to address it. While Bengtsson maintains he'd always been a skeptic as any scientist ought to be, the foundation and climate-change skeptics proudly announced it as a defection from the scientific consensus.

Less than a week later, he says he's been forced to resign from the group. The abuse he's received from the climate-science community has made it impossible to carry on his academic work and made him fear for his own safety. A once-peaceful community, he says in his resignation letter, now reminds him of McCarthyism.

"I had not expect[ed] such an enormous world-wide pressure put at me from a community that I have been close to all my active life," he wrote in his resignation. "Colleagues are withdrawing their support, other colleagues are withdrawing from joint authorship."

London's Daily Mail reports that Bengtsson "was also abused on science blogs, with one describing the people who condemned him as 'respectable' and that his actions amounted to 'silliness.' Another described him as a 'crybaby.' "

Bengtsson tells the Mail: "Some people like my views, other people don't, that is the way when it comes to science." That's precisely the point. Science is a methodical process of open inquiry. Those who enforce orthodoxies and engage in name-calling aren't doing science, even if they're scientists.

Gerson is correct in observing that a layman's intuition is of little use in evaluating a scientific proposition. That requires intellect and expertise, and most laymen do not have the latter. But intuition is enough to distinguish an authoritarian from a real authority.

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